Betula`Loo

Best of my Days

2012-01-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

About a month later then I meant it to be, this post is finally getting uploaded! Obviously there was no new year's resolution to be better at blogging!

Last year I found a lovely printable whereby you record the best of your day for 365 days. I love journaling but sometimes it's I don't feel I have a lot to say, or don't have much time to write. This project was perfect because you only write a line a day which is manageable even at the end of busy days! At the end of the year I was excited to read back over the best of my days and, because I like statistics, I counted how many entries there were in different categories. For instance I had 62 "bests" about food: cookies I baked, eating out, roast chicken, etc.; 45 about crafting and 81 about triathlons/training. I kept my pages on a binder ring which made it a great place to store ticket stubs and the like.

AshleyAnn has made two versions for 2012... I chose the stripey version and am almost a month in to collecting another year of bests. I'm looking forward to comparing the two next year and seeing how many bests repeated themselves and how even one short line can trigger so many memories!

Baby Kina

2012-01-15T17:38:00.000-05:00

Over the Christmas holidays I cast on and finished a baby sweater for a friend at work. The pattern is Baby Kina and it's knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Lovely yarn to work with! I chose deep purple which isn't a typical baby girl colour but I think it'll work.

Finishing this little sweater in a week got me motivated to finally cast on for a sweater for me! Look here for a sneek peek. Hopefully by this time next year (if not sooner) I'll have it done.

Giveaway Day Winner

2011-12-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who visited and left a comment, I loved reading what you were all looking forward to this holiday season. Not surprisingly most people are looking forward to spending time with families but there seems to be lots of handmade gift giving planned which is exciting too!

On to the winner! The trusty True Random Number Generator came up with number 20 who is ewebewe. Congratulations! I'll be in touch to get your mailing address. If you did not win but would like a needle case of your own I have a tutorial here. I also have some made up which I should really list in my Etsy shop... Add that to the to do list!

Giveaway Day!

2011-12-12T16:48:00.001-05:00

Hooray! Giveaway Day is here!

Here at Betula`Loo I'll be giving away this handmade needlecase that holds up to 6 packages of sewing machine needles.

Here's what a needlecase looks like full of needles. (Please note the giveaway is for the blue case and you will need to supply your own needles).

If you would like a chance to win please leave a comment on this post about something you're looking forward to, or already enjoying this holiday season. I'm happy to ship internationally so everyone is welcome to enter. I will be picking a winner with the random number generator on the morning of Saturday December 17. Good luck & thanks for stopping by!

The Great Chiyogami Giveaway!

2011-12-11T18:28:00.000-05:00

Over at The Paper Place they are hosting the 2nd Great Chiyogami Giveaway. And when they say great they mean great - the winner will receive over 700 sheets of chiyogami paper! Can you imagine all the stuff you could make with that? The contest runs till December 15th so there's still time to go over and enter!

And if you were wondering what to do with all that paper maybe you could make these star ornaments. Here's the tutorial from last year.

Come back tomorrow for my contribution to Giveaway Day on Sew, Mama, Sew!

One of a Kind Roundup

2011-12-01T06:44:00.000-05:00

The One of a Kind Show is one of my favourite events of the Christmas season. With 800 vendors it's a lot to take in - I highly recommend taking a break half way through (if not more often) for a tea or gelato and a sit down. We forgot this step last year and were regretting it by the end.

Now that I've done a couple craft shows I had extra respect for the makers who spend 10 long days at the show and tried to remember what it's like to sit with your crafts for sale. I couldn't talk to everyone of course (I was on a bit of a time budget) but the conversations I did have I tried to make meaningful. I found it interesting that I was drawn to the artists who work in the same mediums I do - paper and fabric. In some ways it would make more sense to look at jewelry, glass work and the like - things I have not the talent or desire to do. But in other ways it makes perfect sense - I love paper and fabric: that's why I work with them, no wonder I love looking at them too!

While every artisan there has special items to offer I'd like to show you a few of my favourties.

I love the aprons from Pi'lo - there's a recipe for bread printed on the bib!

Vintage linens made into bread bags (and other delightful articles) from L'Atelier du Presbytere.

The most destinctive thing (in my opinion) in Honeybea's booth are these bum warmers. Made from recycled sweaters I think they'd make a great addition to a Canadian winter wardrobe!

I love how the Woodlot brings nature into your house. This ipod dock is such a nice way to blend nature & technology.

Flakes Paperie had lots of fun ideas like these holiday postal telegrams. Who wouldn't love to get this in the mail?

Katie McLellan calls herself an eclectic media artist which describes her work perfectly! I chose to show one of her kite people hangings here but there was so much more in her booth: stained glass ornaments, shoulder bags, mushroom puppets etc.

Krystal Speck is my favourite potter at the show! The last few years I've made a point of collecting one of her pieces when I go. It's a nice tradition I hope to continue.

I love this mussel necklace from Filou. Searching through tide pools has to be one of my favourite things and this pendant captures that feeling.

Paint chip placemats! How fun! Avril loreti has other paint chip items too, this booth was full of colour.

Stephen Haigh's work is amazing! All inlaid wood and the attention to detail is incredible!

And my favourite visual artist, Joseph Sampson. I don't have an example to show you but head over to his webpage and spend some time oogling his art. Simply amazing! Maybe it's a good thing I don't have the money to buy one of his pieces - I could never decide which one to take home!

The show is open through to Sunday December 4th and today (December 1st) is late night shopping day (I mean night). The show will be open till 11 pm for you to go browse all that loveliness! If you're in the Toronto area I highly recommend you go check it out! There are also shows in Vancouver and Chicago if you can't make it to Toronto.

Lately...

2011-11-29T06:55:00.000-05:00

I took Betula`Loo on the road and participated in two shows.

The first was an Open House at a local salon. Not super successful sales wise.

But I did meet children's author Jean Little! She was there signing books and we had lots of time to chat. She is one of my favourite authors so this was a real treat! That's her on the right, me in the middle, and her sister Pat on the left.

Then I did another craft show at a local-ish school. Not much to say there, made some sales, not wildly successful...

I finished knitting this hat in yarn from SweetGeorgia that I've been ~~hoarding~~ waiting for the right project for. I'm impressed I got it done before the winter started...

... because these socks I've been working on since Easter & I just finished them last month! Sock yarn looks wonderful knit up but oh my, it did take a while!

Last weekend I went to the One of a Kind show in Toronto and picked up some lovely business cards and postcards as well as handmade goodness. I plan on sharing some of my favourite artisans in the next post.

What have you been doing lately?

It's Coming...

2011-11-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

Giveaway Day that is!

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day (now extended to Giveaway week!) but if not head over there to read about how it works. It's always a great time to find new blogs, get inspired and of course, maybe win something! There will be a giveaway here so stay tuned.

Christmas Crafternoon

2011-11-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I hosted another Crafternoon - this one with a Christmas theme.

I set up various "stations" around the house - folding wish stars from glitter paper and trees from magazine pages, sewing Christmas trees from felt, and the most popular, Christmas card making!

This is how the table looked before everyone arrived.

Then people came and got creative.

And the table looked like this!

We also enjoyed some festive nibbles...

...to sustain our creative efforts. I loved introducing non-crafters to the joy of folding, stamping and embossing. If you've never tried embossing (the kind where you stamp an image, sprinkle on embossing powder & heat it), I highly recommend it! Watching the embossing powder set is like magic & it was so fun to see everyone's reaction to their first embossing experience!

All round it was a great afternoon. We may need to do this again. Soon.

Christmas Ornament #2

2011-11-01T19:45:00.000-04:00

Finished the second ornament from my Walk in the Woods kit. I love sewing these ornaments, wool felt is so lovely to work with and it's nice to have the pattern, instructions & supplies all ready and waiting. The sequin & french knot snowflakes were fun to sew, I'm only disappointed there's only one ornament left!

Crafternoon Guest Posting

2011-10-29T09:28:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to direct you to Bugs and Fishes by Lupin where you will find my first ever guest post! Topic: Crafternoon and making stuffed owls.

Christmas Crafting Has Begun!

2011-10-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

I know I'm not the only one who has begun Christmas crafts - I've seen them on blogs like A Spoonful of Sugar, According to Kelly and Sew, Mama, Sew! I'm starting with a felt ornaments. I bought a kit from Alicia Paulson last year but it arrived when I was in the midst of a plethora of Christmas crafts & I didn't get to sewing it. So far I've got one ornament, the cottage, done.

It was lots of fun - beads and felt and lots of different techniques which I like! Except a slight slip up at the beginning (of course the back and the front need to be mirror images, not identical Laura!) it went along really well. Now I'm working on the snowy tree which is almost done. One of my favourite features of this ornament is the bit of wool roving coming out the chimneys. You can almost smell the wood fire that must be going on inside.

Birthday Day Out

2011-10-19T20:55:00.000-04:00

Monday was my birthday and it was as wonderful as you could want any birthday to be. I was still on a bit of a high from finishing a half marathon the day before and since the race offered discounted hotel rooms to participants my sister & I stayed the night in Toronto. So on birthday morning once we were up and fed we headed out to shop! Although it doesn't always happen on our actual birthdays it is now our tradition to go birthday shopping rather then give each other gifts. It means we can spend time together and usually we go explore somewhere outside of our city. This time we headed to Queen St. W in Toronto.

Our first stop was a wonderful bookstore called Type.

The front of the store had all kinds of wonderful journals, stationery, cards, labels, etc. and the back was filled with wonderful books! My sister bought me a Line a Day 5 Year Journal. It's similar to the Best of my Days project I have going now only obviously this is for 5 years. There's also room for a bit more then a line each day and there's no pressure that I have to write about the best of each day. I think it will be an interesting project, especially as it will go from birthday to birthday. Let's hope I can keep it up for 1826 entries!

I did a quick look through the children's book section but didn't linger as children's books are very dangerous to me my wallet. I did find a couple things in the adult book section. Although I would have loved to bring them home the lovely cloth bound copies of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Emma (have I ever mentioned I'm a big Jane Austen fan) are getting added to the wish list!

Right next door was the store I came to see - the Paper Place. I was fortunate to make my first visit there last year on my birthday (a tradition I would be all for continuing!).

Rainbows of paper - do they excite anyone else?

I tried to stay away from large sheets of paper as I still have lots left from my purchases last year. It was exciting to see Jaime's stamp packs for sale - I bought some more to replenish my stash (it's much easier to use them if you know you have another waiting in your drawer).

I love this little tree. I think it would be perfect for displaying handmade ornaments. Unfortunately it wasn't for sale, I'm hoping Etsy & Google will be able to help me out there!

My nose found this little cafe - the smell of fresh baked croissants is very hard to resist! They were just as delicious as they look.

This yarn store was jam packed with lovely yarns. I showed great restraint and didn't buy anything! There's enough yarn in my stash right now. My sister bought a skein of yarn though, so we didn't leave empty handed.

A quick stop for lunch - Sunday Dinner soup and a London Fog and then back home before rush hour began.

Dinner & games with friends, although not great lighting for photos, was a great way to finish the day. I may be grown up now but birthdays are still exciting and wonderful!

Toronto Half Marathon

2011-10-18T20:57:00.000-04:00

On the weekend I ran in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon, definitely my longest race so far. The only other road race I've done was 5km, a half marathon is 21.1km. This Sunday that equalled 2 hours, 11 minutes and 41 seconds of run time. Wow! If you had told me last year I would run for over 2 hours straight I would have laughed, but this year it seemed completely possible. It was a little chilly - fine once I got going but a tad cold waiting for the race to start.

During the race it was runners as far as I could see - both in front & behind me. About 20,000 people took part in the marathon, half and 5km events that day and did we ever fill the streets! It was incredible to be part of such a big event. Even people who aren't into running knew the marathon was going on (mostly because they had to detour to wherever they were going) and I thought - yep, it was my event that caused that!

At the end everyone got a finishers medal. I *may* have carried it around in my pocket and whipped it out to show just about anyone - I figure I earned those bragging rights!

Would I do it again? For sure! It was a great experience and I'm so proud of myself not only for finishing but also for doing all the training. Maybe next time it will be a full marathon. Crazy? Maybe just a bit!

Ready to Run

2011-10-14T22:04:00.000-04:00

This past summer I completed the 99/100 run challenge: run 100 miles in 99 days. Part way through the challenge I signed up for a half marathon and began training for that. Today I finished the 12 week training plan!!!

I missed one run out of the 28 that were planned, and two were shortened, but in total I ran 247 km in the last 12 weeks!

And this Sunday I'll be out with 20,000 other runners doing my longest distance yet at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

Last Stop - Vancouver

2011-10-14T21:52:00.000-04:00

The last stop on our trip was Vancouver; mainly to visit family & friends but we also snuck in a little sight seeing & shopping. This picture is from the top of Grouse Mountain which is, more or less, in the city. As far as I can remember this was the first time I've been up Grouse. This time we took the gondola up but next time I want to hike up the "Grouse Grind".

At the top we saw this grizzly bear! Safely ensconced in a habitat and happily eating (grass!) away with his friend. Both the bears were orphaned as cubs and were brought to Grouse Mountain to live.

There was a fair amount of physical activity during the trip and Vancouver was no exception. My sister & I took some dance classes at Harbour Dance. My favourite ballet class - I haven't taken one in a few years and it was great to be back at the barre.

I kept up running while I was away. My favourite run was along the seawall - it was a beautiful run and there was so much to look at the 15 kilometres went by quite quickly.

Still in the sporty theme of things we revisited the Olympic Cauldron. Not nearly as exciting as 18 months ago when it was lit but you can get a lot closer now!

The final event was a triathlon! I competed in the Vancouver Triathlon in Stanley Park - sprint distance. That's 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run. Because they close the road around the park the race started early - 7:00 which made for a chilly start! This was my first ocean race and was it chilly! Even with a wetsuit on. Some people swam without them and kudos to them I couldn't have done it!

Friends of mine were bike course marshals and happened to get the camera out in time to catch me riding by.

Here I am on the run, at this point my feet had finally thawed from the swim and I was really enjoying the day.

Our last night was spent at the beach eating fish & chips & ice cream with good friends. Great finale to a great trip.

Lake Louise

2011-10-13T21:15:00.000-04:00

Need to get this summer vacation series wrapped up since we're now well into fall and there are crafts going on that can be shared!

Did I mention I got an iPhone just before I left? (And when I say "just" I mean the night before my flight). I love the Hipstamatic app! It was fun to play around with and get some different looking tourist photos.

Besides taking photos (something that is very easy to do in Lake Louise as it's so beautiful) one of the most popular activities is hiking. We spent about 6 hours out on the trail one day.

Catching glimpses of views like this:

Can you see the tiny dots on the lake? Those are canoes! We were just a little bit high up.

This picture makes it look like we were the only ones there, but in reality this was snapped in between groups of tourists. And I'm sure this same photo was on everyone's camera - such a classic scene!

One more post and then the vacation series will be done.

Moraine Lake + Ground Squirrels

2011-09-23T21:41:00.000-04:00

The next stop on our summer adventure was Moraine Lake. This picture sums it up. And no, I haven't altered it at all - it's straight off the camera!

While we were there we rented a canoe.

And spent an hour paddling around some of the most breath taking scenery I have ever seen.

On the most beautiful coloured water.

Gazing at these majestic mountains.

We also ate lunch there... with some visitors! There were two ground squirrels who were desperate to sample my lunch! I let him (her?) crawl on me for a bit but once it got up near my head I was done!

Summer Trip - Banff

2011-09-15T21:00:00.000-04:00

After a few days visiting family in Calgary my first stop on the trip was Banff. I had driven through once (I think) but never stopped. Oh my goodness - it's gorgeous there!

We (me & my sister) went hiking...

Sat in the hot springs (and lost my sunglasses)...

And marveled at the beautiful surroundings...

We also observed local wildlife. Like this ground squirrel - not the last time we'd encounter them as you'll see!

99/100 = DONE!

2011-09-11T16:16:00.000-04:00

Labour Day is over and so is the 99/100 challenge - run 100 miles between Memorial Day & Labour Day. I'm pleased to report I finished the 100 miles on August 22 but went on to run 120 miles by Labour Day. It was a slow start but midsummer, when I had less then half the time but more then half the miles to go, I signed up & started training for a half marathon which really kicked things into gear!

Sorry for not updating before but I was away for 2.5 weeks and then catching up with everything that went on while I was away! I'll be back to share pictures & stories of the trip later this week.

99/100 Update

2011-08-19T06:14:00.000-04:00

Not many updates here on the 99/100 challenge but I have been running! Honest! I'm up to 92.3 miles. Some alone, most with friends. (There may have been some running through sprinklers...) So less then 8 miles to go and more then 2 weeks to do it in. Totally do-able!

Oh, and did I mention I'm running my first half marathon this fall? So my running won't be ending at Labour Day. This is the run plan I'm going to follow to be ready for 21 kilometres (13 miles) in October.

Taped on my bathroom mirror so I can't forget about it!

Doll Clothes Again

2011-08-14T08:10:00.000-04:00

I've done a little sewing of doll clothes for my cousin's little girl who I'll be seeing in a week. She's 4 & I thought she'd like to expand her Cabbage Patch wardrobe a little. I made all these things from stuff I had on hand - mostly old clothes that were too worn out to wear. I love using old clothes for doll clothes because you can cheat and re-use the hems most of the time!

First up, a dress that was a long sleeved T-shirt in a former life.

Next, due to some lack of planning on my part, there is one T-shirt with three different bottoms options.

Skirt (the only thing not made from old clothes)...

Shorts...

Pants...

I remember from my doll playing days that I really liked having everyday clothes for my dolls, they didn't have a lot of occasions for wearing fancy dresses, so I've kept that in mind when planning doll wardrobes.

If you would like to make some doll clothes of your own you can find the T-shirt tutorial here and the pants tutorial here. The dress is like a T-shirt with a gathered rectangle attached and the skirt is a gathered rectangle. If you have questions please ask!

Where I've Been

2011-08-08T20:36:00.000-04:00

As you've probably realized there hasn't been a lot of crafting going on here lately. This is where I've been spending my time.

At the lake. Hop in the car, 20 minutes later you're here.

So many evenings spent at this beautiful spot.

Gotta soak up the sunshine while it lasts.

Signs

2011-08-04T20:46:00.000-04:00

On my recent day out I spotted these, somewhat unusual signs:

Not that many people paid attention to the first one - can't blame them it was hot! I'm not sure about the second because I was inside when the train movement was in progress.

Day out

2011-08-01T13:42:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I spent the day in my nearest "big city" - Toronto.

We (my mom, sister & I) were a bit early so we spent a few minutes taking pictures of seagull families & feet while we sat by the fountain in front of city hall.

Then off to the Four Seasons Centre (the city's opera house) for a backstage tour.

It's a beautiful building. While we waited for our tour to start I took pictures. Of the great architectural features.

Two views of the glass staircase.

The lobby.

And then my sister & I did a little photo-shoot on the grand staircase. Because when you come for a performance it's covered in people so you can't do things like this.

Well you could but there would be lots of people in the photo as well as some giving you strange looks.

At this point our mother was pretending she didn't know us. We aren't the only ones who think the stairs make a great place for a photo - here is the National Ballet Orchestra having their picture taken on the same stairs (photo taken post performance in June).

I didn't take any pictures of backstage but it was really interesting to see the non-public spaces in the building and hear more about the thought that went into the design.

Next we were off to see a show in the most unusual theatre I've been to! It's basically a tent.

And this is the star of the show!

A vintage steam engine named Vicky. Here she is on stage.

The show was The Railway Children based on the book by E. Nesbitt. The staging was really interesting, it was a railway platform with seats on both sides and the actors performing in the middle. As well as the train, there were "mini stages" that rolled along the tracks as part of the scenery.

All in all a great day of theatre!

Chiyogami Challenge - Projects #6 & #7

2011-07-10T16:42:00.000-04:00

Does anyone else feeling less crafty this summer? Maybe not feeling less crafty but not finding time to craft? After hibernating all winter I just want to get out in the sunshine as much as possible! Thus the lack of posts since its got warm.

Two projects today - both came from the same sheet of paper.

The first was using a small strip to cover the top of a notepad.

Cut out sheets of note paper.
Staple together.
Glue a piece of decorative paper around the top (covering both sides).

The next one is even easier. I'm sure you can figure it out for yourself! My tip is to make sure there is glue in the fold so it will be attached to the paper clip.

That's all for now. Off to the lake in a bit for a little canoe & swim.

Chiyogami Challenge - Project #5

2011-07-05T20:45:00.000-04:00

No step by step pictures for this one but it's pretty easy (hmm... I feel like I've been saying that about a lot of these projects).

Glue wooden stars to paper & let dry.
Cut out & glaze the paper.
Glue a magnet to the back.

One piece of paper was enough for a big & little star.

Chiyogami Challenge - Project #4

2011-06-26T20:25:00.000-04:00

I (along with most of blogland it seems) love washi tape. Again, along with most of blogland it's not something I find in stores very often (I did find some at the Paper Place back in October) and so far I haven't ordered any on-line. So I've used one of my chiyogami squares to make 18" of custom washi tape.

Stick double sided tape along the top of the paper square.

Trim off the excess paper. (I'm using a rotary cutter but you could use scissors).

Stick the excess paper on the tape next to the piece you've trimmed and continue this way till all the paper is used up!

And now you've got some one of a kind tape ready for use! Envelopes, parcels, scrapbooking - here we come!

99/100 Update

2011-06-20T21:31:00.000-04:00

Three weeks in to the 99/100 challenge I've run 20 miles - a fifth of the total! My last 3-ish miles happened last weekend during a triathlon. I started triathloning a year and half ago & absolutely love it! And since I have pictures I'm going to add them.

Here we are heading out for the swim (I'm in the pink cap group).

And part-way out on the course.

Me heading out to the bike. I just realized how co-ordinated my outfit/bike are! Nice!

80 more to go!

Chiyogami Challenge - Project #3

2011-06-15T06:28:00.000-04:00

Another quick one!

Punch circles out (I find chiyogami paper doesn't punch well on it's own so I punch it together with a scrap of regular paper).

Glue onto blank labels (I used a UHU glue stick).

Peel away the outside of the labels and trim the backing paper.

I've been using these as seals on the backs of envelopes, where would you use them?

Stamp Love

2011-06-12T21:05:00.000-04:00

Stamp packs from Send More Mail stuck on and ready to go.

Chiyogami Challenge - Project #2

2011-06-07T20:39:00.000-04:00

Ready for another chiyogami project? Nothing too fancy but a fun way to display some beautiful paper!

Another look at them - as part of a display collection.

No step by step photos for this one but the instructions run something like this: cut squares from paper, glue on wooden block. I used 1" squares of paper and the blocks are ever so slightly larger. And since each block only need 6 squares I have a 1x3 rectangle of each print left for another project!

Chiyogami Challenge - Project #1

2011-06-05T21:01:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned yesterday I've finished the first project in my chiyogami challenge. Can you spot it?

Yep, a little frame!

Want to make one too?

You'll need:

3" square of decorative paper
2.5" square of heavy card (mine is maybe mat board)
glue, scissors, craft knife

1. Cut a square out of the centre of your card.

2. Cut an X out of your decorative paper (I put the frame on top & eyeballed it).

3. Clip the corners off the outside paper as well as the triangles created by the X and fold the onto the frame.

4. Glue everything down.

I've got mine propped up with other photo frames but I think these would be great scrapbook embellishments as well!

Another Challenge

2011-06-04T22:04:00.000-04:00

So you may have noticed I like challenges. And deadlines. Something to motivate me to do things and finish them. I recently wrote about my self-imposed Chiyogami Challenge (two projects done, posts pending photos due to crappy weather today).

This weekend I joined another challenge - the 99/100 challenge hosted by Elizabeth over at *my crafty mess*.

Did I mention it's not craft related? This challenge is to run 100 miles in 99 days. Specifically the days between Memorial Day & Labour Day. Which is a little interesting since I'm Canadian so don't observe Memorial Day or measure in miles but 100 in 99 sounds kinda impressive, don't you think? Would you like to give the 99/100 challenge a try? Any mileage counts: rollerblades, bikes, swimming (OK, that would be a super challenge!), walking, etc. Great motivation to get active this summer!

I'll post a few updates on how it's going, maybe every week or two as I don't think anyone is coming here to read a list of run kilometers/miles completed!

See you tomorrow with some paper projects.

Chiyogami Challenge

2011-05-31T21:37:00.000-04:00

When I was out this weekend I picked up this little package of paper. Have I mentioned I'm a sucker for anything tiny?

And the marketing is good too - you don't want to be stranded without some chiyogami! LOL

Coming from the Japanese Paper Place I knew there would be beautiful paper inside (plus I undid the package and had a peek in the store... shhh) - and there was!

So I have now challenged myself to come up with 24 different projects to use these tiny pieces of paper. No deadlines, just 24 beautiful projects to accomplish when I feel like paper crafting!

Buttercup Bag

2011-05-29T20:52:00.000-04:00

I'm sure some of you are familiar with Rae's Buttercup Bag pattern - it uses fat quarters, is quick, easy and free! It's been on my informal to do list for a while and this spring I found the perfect fabric for it! Actually when I bought the fabric I considered making another Birdie Sling but since I have 2 already I thought I'd go for something a little different.

I love it! Big bags are nice for carrying a water bottle, camera, umbrella, etc. etc. but sometimes a girl needs something a little smaller. Especially when wearing a summer dress (which it is finally warm enough for - hooray!).

And since turquoise is my favourite colour it will go with a lot of my clothes (um, and shoes & jewelry, what can I say, I know what I like!)

I made a few changes to the original pattern:

Interfaced the whole thing to give it more shape-holding capabilities.
Adding piping between the two outer pieces.
Made the inside pocket more rectangular & less square.
Made the strap wider (which I was able to do since I was working with yardage and not a fat quarter).

The pattern is great and I'm sure I'll be making more of these!

We have a winner!

2011-05-25T21:23:00.000-04:00

First of all, thankyou so much for all your lovely comments! I read each & every one & really enjoyed hearing how near & far everyone is from. Because I'm a bit of a geek I'll probably count all the responses and make some sort of chart or something. Bet you're excited about that one!

Anyways let's get on to the main show here - declaring a winner! I plugged the numbers into the True Random Number Generator (sorry commenter #236, I got your comment minutes after doing this!) and the end result is that redzshadow from Charlottesville, VA is the winner!

I'll be in touch by e-mail for your shipping details. Thanks again to everyone who entered, reading your comments really made my day(s).

News Flash!

2011-05-24T21:02:00.000-04:00

Drumroll please... I'm excited to announce my Etsy store is now open! More items to be added later this week but I thought I would let you know. Plus if I waited till I had time to list all my items it would never happen. If you'd like to visit, here's a link.

If you're here for Giveaway Day please go to This Post.

Thanks!

Giveaway Day!

2011-05-22T21:04:00.000-04:00

I love Giveaway Days! They're really a win-win situation. You get a chance to win really cool stuff (last count I heard had over 300 bloggers giving things away!) and really cool blogs get new readers. What's not to like? Anyways, I know you're busy checking out all the neat stuff out there so I'll get down to business.

My giveaway is a rainbow zippy pouch like this:

And a set of 4 recycled cards, like this:

To enter please leave a comment telling me where you're from. I will pick a winner with the wonderful random number generator on the evening of the 25th and ship the prize by the 30th. International entries welcome, I will ship anywhere!

P.S. If you don't win but would like a rainbow zippy pouch or some recycled cards come back in a few days for my Etsy shop opening!

I (heart) Mail

2011-05-19T21:16:00.000-04:00

What could be more wonderful then getting something in the mail?

Receiving an envelope with beautiful vintage stamps on it! (Can you see I was too excited to open it nicely and ripped it at the top?)

They're super cute in the package.

And so much fun once they're out!

My problem now is deciding who to send these wonderful stamps to. Someone who would appreciate them of course. Although I'm having a little trouble letting go (isn't that girl watering the tree lovely?) so I'm seriously tempted to ask them to send them back to me instead of throwing them out. Consider this your warning - if these stamps end up in your mailbox don't get too attached!

Want your own awesome stamps? Jaime at Send More Mail is the lovely lady who assembles these packages - each with enough stamps to send a letter in Canada. (Sorry everyone who lives elsewhere!)

I'm Excited About...

2011-05-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

This masking tape revamp on How About Orange.

Giveaway Day on Sew, Mama, Sew.

These forest stamps from Canada Post.

Mother's Day - Crafts, etc.

2011-05-08T21:30:00.000-04:00

Mothers are always appreciative of gifts made by their children, right? This year for Mother's Day I painted a mug for my mum. A love of sailing (and canoeing!) is something we have in common and it was something different from mugs you'd see in shops but still within my artistic capabilities!

The first boat turned out so well (surprised myself actually with how good it looked) that I did two more, on the other side.

The colours on the handle are how I had imagined the whole mug looking - more blendy and Impressionist. I would say now I know how to do it for next time but I'm not sure really how I got that look!

I couldn't resist putting something fun inside!

More painting for the card. Sometimes things just work out well! I'd actually planned to do something different but this materialized and I'm very happy with it. Plus it was a chance to use washi tape!!

This afternoon my mum, sister & I sat down to this delightful tea! Yum! My tastebuds are happy just thinking about it.

I hope you were able to do something special today too!

First Craft Show!

2011-05-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

If you're wondering how my first craft show went - this picture says it all:

OK, not really. But it was rather slow so I had time to fold all these stars while I was not talking to customers or friends who came by. Huge thankyou to Maria who suggested I bring a craft to work on during the day! As someone who rarely sits and does nothing (even when watching TV I'm usually knitting or something) having stars to fold made my day much better!

Even though there wasn't much traffic (or many sales) I had a good day. It was exciting to be selling at my first craft show and I was thrilled with every sale. This is how my table looked (note: the hats behind me are part of the booth next to mine!)

The display ended up being the mirror image of how I'd done it at home because I realized after getting all the table cloths in place I wanted the deeper one on the side with the box/riser and it seemed easier to set the display up reverse rather then move all the table cloths around.

These next pictures give a closer-up look at how the table was set up (comments & suggestions welcome!):

I'm so glad I did my first show close to home - for many reasons:

You don't have far to go so you don't need to wake up extra early!
You don't have far to go so it doesn't cost much to get there.
A lot of friends I invited were able to stop by as it's close to their homes too!
People I know but didn't invite came by - nice to chat to those I hadn't seen in a while.

Thanks again to everyone who came by yesterday - I really appreciated the support!

Now that I've done a craft show and realize I like it I'm excited to do more! One of the great things about doing a show is talking to people, including other vendors who give tips of good shows to do! I'm looking into a few options right now, hopefully I can find another show (or two or three!) in the next few months.

And maybe I can return to non-craft show related posts here! I have a bunch of fabric waiting to become garments that I should really get at...

Moo Minis

2011-04-27T19:53:00.000-04:00

With my first craft show coming up I wanted some business cards to hand out. Good idea, right? I thought about making my own but that seemed a little labour intensive (I was picturing a small collage or something). Then I got an e-mail from Moo with details of a 25% off sale! Hooray! I've been in love with Moo's mini cards but haven't had the occasion to order any - until now! I love their small size and I love that you can have 100 different pictures (I didn't have that many but still a neat feature) per set.

They arrived yesterday - it wasn't guaranteed they would be here in time and I was too cheap to pay for express shipping. Plus they arrived from England as it was cheaper then ordering from the States - go figure! I'm very happy with them and can't wait to start handing them out!

Show & Tell

2011-04-25T17:22:00.000-04:00

Hope you all had a good long weekend! I sure enjoyed 4 days off work. Today I have a couple things to show you.

Last weekend at the CreativFestival I had the chance to try Ebru - Turkish paper marbling. Now I've tried paper marbling before on a small scale (think margarine tub and small jars of model paint) but this was larger and more... planned. After I chose my design I was directed what colours to use, how to apply it and got a helping hand when things weren't quite right.

When the print was made it looked like this! A pansy - my favourite flower.

The second thing I have to show you is this little wood burning I won at the Cabin & Cub giveaway, isn't it sweet? I was so excited to win - it's the first ever giveaway I've won! My name was picked when there was still snow on the ground so this little guy was a welcome reminder that spring is here!

Giveaway Alert!

2011-04-23T08:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry this is so last minute but Tanis is hosting an amazing giveaway where you could win this lovely wool:

Plus a copy of the Wispy Cardigan Pattern that she used to make this lovely sweater. But you need to hurry, the giveaway ends today!

Problem Solved!

2011-04-18T20:10:00.000-04:00

In my last post I showed you my craft show table but was still looking for a solution for displaying my cards. I was digging around the basement on the weekend and found this little pedestal (originally used for plant pots) which works perfectly! I also added a basket from the dollar store to hold packs of cards, this way there can be more sets out for people to choose from.

Last weekend was also the CreativFestival in Toronto... more next time after I get pictures from my friend!

Craft Show Table

2011-04-13T20:08:00.000-04:00

I've been playing with my table set up the last few days... it's in the basement so excuse the horrible lighting! Mostly I'm pretty pleased with it. I still need to add a few things:

A sign with my shop name
Price list
Cards saying what the different items are, uses for them, etc.

On the left side of the table I've got thumb tacks and magnets (hmm... that bulletin board needs sprucing up too!)

In the middle are my recycled cards. This is the bit I'm still not satisfied with. I need a way to display example cards and the tricky bit is they are both horizontal and vertical. Any suggestions?

On the right side are things I've sewn: buckets, zippy pouches and needle cases (plus random basement junk in the background which obviously won't be there at the show!)

Overall? I like! A little tweaking and we should be good to go.

Craft Show Creations

2011-04-10T19:33:00.000-04:00

With my first craft show less then three weeks away I've been working on making inventory. Like needle cases...

And I've been making more rainbow flower cards...

Rainbows have been turning up in other places too. Like thumbtacks...

And magnets (which are significantly larger then the thumbtacks though you can't really tell here)...

I love how these rainbow zippy pouches turned out!

But I also made some plainer ones in case you're looking for something a little less bright.

I've started working on packaging and my table display. Since I've never done this before I wanted to leave plenty of time to fiddle with things and get something I'm happy with. I'll show you later this week and you can offer any suggestions you have!

Computer Troubles

2011-04-07T06:35:00.002-04:00

The computer is in the shop right now. It wouldn't even turn on.

More interesting posts when it comes back. I promise!

Tiny Dolls

2011-03-27T19:55:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I showed you some tiny clothes I was embroidering...

And I've now got the final product to show you!

As I mentioned before this doll is taken from the book Felt Wee Folk. This is my first project from the book but I doubt it will be my last! I love embroidering on wool felt and it was such fun to play clothing designer as I sewed. The body is made from embroidery floss wrapped pipe cleaners. This doll wasn't my first attempt at pipe cleaner dolls. Many years ago I made lots, and sold some under the name "Laura's Lassies". I started with basic dolls...

And then started making them as dancers! These ones are based on costumes from one of the dance shows I was in.

Here are some more balletic ones.

There are lots more too, I'll have to see if I can find pictures of the costumes these are based on. Would you be interested in seeing?

Mass Producing

2011-03-24T21:31:00.000-04:00

With my first craft show coming up in five weeks most of my crafting time is devoted to making things for the show. Mass production style. This is how my bed looked after making lots of rainbow cards and waiting for the glitter glue to dry!

After they were dry I packaged them up with twine (there are kraft coloured envelopes in the bundle too although you can't see them here). I plan to tie on a tag, which is why the ends are so long right now.

And then I stacked them all in a box. It makes me happy to see them all there, waiting to be sold!

Something Big

2011-03-19T20:40:00.000-04:00

In my post about New Things I've done lately I purposely left one out. Maybe because I hadn't done it yet, maybe because I still wasn't sure I would. But now I'm ready to share...

I'm going to sell my crafts at a real, live craft show!

Yep, I'm a bit scared about it! But really, what's the worst that can happen? I sell nothing (though that seems highly unlikely, I'm sure I have a friend or two who would drop by and take pity on me) or I sell everything and am left with an empty table 2 hours into the show. Neither are horrible situations to be in. I've told myself to suck it up and take the plunge.

So why did I decide to do a craft show? One of my goals this year was to re-open my Etsy shop. Since I love crafting it seemed to make sense to sell a few things on the side and make a little money from my hobby. Only I can't get really motivated to do the whole Etsy thing. There are photos to take (and they better be good!), descriptions to write, postage to figure out, labels to create and all that time sitting in front of a screen listing your items. And no deadline to do it by. I'm the kind of person who really needs a deadline to get motivated for, otherwise it's a lot of "some day" going on. So a craft show sounded like a good idea: make a bunch of stuff by a certain date and spend time setting up and managing the table rather then in front of the computer & camera. Yep, sounds like a good idea in theory, stay tuned to hear how the reality turns out!

The show is April 30 so between now and then I'd better kick my crafting into high gear so I have enough stock to fill my 8 x 10 space.

If you happen to be in the area I'd love for you to come by and say hi! Here's the flyer with show details:

Finished : Sampler Scarf

2011-03-16T20:43:00.000-04:00

So the scarf that I started knitting in February is done! Less then 2 months - not bad I'd say! I picked the yarn to match the hat (that I didn't make) that I'm wearing in the picture.

I'm calling it my sampler scarf because that's what it is - a sample of different stripes and blocks of colours. I did make the ends match but the middle is a free for all.

And now it's almost spring (hooray!) but I have a feeling I'll have a couple chances to wear this before putting it away for the summer.

Some Things New

2011-03-13T19:50:00.000-04:00

Over the last few days I've tried some new things. The motivation for this was largely my 29@29 list I wrote on (and for a few weeks after) my last birthday. I didn't share it here... partly because I finished writing it so long after my birthday and partly because some of the things are just silly and, I don't know why, it feels very personal, too personal to put up for everyone to see. I have to say though that having goals written down, with an due date, are highly motivating!

The first thing I tried was a knit & chat night at my local yarn store. This picture is care of their website and doesn't reflect the current window display of green yarn or the actual interior of the store where the knit & chat occurred so you'll have to use your imagination a bit! It turned out to be a great experience. Firstly, a chance to knit without interruptions (other then eating cookies someone had brought I mean), secondly, a great group of ladies with lots of knitting knowledge and fun conversation. Definitely something I would like to try again! Cross off go to a knit & chat from the list.

The second thing I tried was rock climbing. Indoors, at a local climbing gym. Again I forgot my camera so you'll have to make do with this picture from their website. Rock climbing is pretty hard (which I was expecting). My arms were tired after about 2 climbs! I was able to climb the first three levels of routes (? is that the term) but got stuck on the 4th. A challenge for next time I guess! (Yes, I would go back.) Cross try something new off the list.

I love how these two new things are such opposites yet represent me fairly well. To elaborate, over the last 8 days, as well as the above mentioned activities, I attended a bike show, went to a learning session on early childhood numeracy skills and went to the ballet. Now I don't want you to think I'm always that busy but I find I go in spurts of crazy busy weeks and then weeks where nothing much goes on.

There's another New Thing I'd like to share with you, but I haven't committed to it 100% yet. I'll let you know when I do. How about you, have you done any New Things recently?

On my Desk

2011-03-10T06:42:00.000-05:00

I seem to have a bunch of projects on the go right now. This is what my desk looks like as a result!

One of the projects is making little dolls from the instructions in this book. I'd ordered the felt before Christmas but hadn't gotten around do making anything (non-Christmassy) with it till now. I forgot how enjoyable embroidering on wool felt is. Very theraputic!

Not that I'm rushing along at great speed but the dolls will have to be headless until I can get to Michaels or some such and buy the right size beads. Good excuse to visit a craft store though!

More Learning at Sewing Class

2011-03-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

This week marked the end of the sewing classes that came with my sewing machine. After the first lesson which discussed basic sewing we went on to experiment with embroidery, including twin needle sewing (very exciting!). It was nice to have the chance to experiment with all the different stitches on my machine, something I wouldn't sit down and do on my own so it was rather nice to have the time (and direction) to try.

The next class focused on quilting, something I've never tried before, so again nice to have the guided opportunity to try. This is my first attempt at freehand quilting. I think I might need to add "sew a quilt" to my crafty to do list.

With the feed dogs down you can do other free hand things too, like write your name!

Part of the series also introduced the many attachments you can get to make sewing various things easier. Mostly feet: invisible zipper foot, straight stitch foot, gathering foot, piping foot, rufflers, hemming sets, etc. etc. All very amazing but I also realized you don't need all these fancy feet, most things can be accomplished with a regular or zipper foot. It might take a bit more time & fiddling but definitely do-able.

I really learn a lot at these classes (and must down put my notes in some sort of order so I can refer to them later). If you have the opportunity to take a class & learn about your machine I highly recommend it!

Kirigami Challenge - Week 4

2011-03-01T19:11:00.000-05:00

Today is March 1st which means my February kirigami challenge is over. It was fun but I'll confess I'm pretty happy that now I don't need to remember to find the time to cut something every day! Here's my last week of designs.

Day 21:

hmmm... really can't find anything to say about this design...moving right along!

Day 22:
I was trying to add some scallop-y edges to this. It worked out except where I was too close to the edge and you see the flat parts.

Day 23:
This was supposed to be much bigger but I chopped off those essential folds so I ended up doing a small design. I like the geometric-ness of this piece!

Day 24:
I love how a little flower showed up in the middle - completely unintentionally!

Day 25:
I think this design would look smashing with the holes coloured in like stained glass! Maybe tissue paper or glued down and watercoloured.

Day 26:
Lots of curves, kinda reminds me of worms or something.

Day 27:
I love cutting stars, I added a little star in the centre for fun.

Day 28:
I really like the peaks on this one. And the colour! Nice way to end my month-long challenge.

Now what do I do with all these cutouts? Suggestions?

A Rainbow of Flowers

2011-02-27T21:26:00.000-05:00

I love these rainbow heart cards over at Childmade. Since I don't have a heart punch I improvised with my flower punch. And I love how it turned out!

Then I tried putting my flowers in vases & bouquets. Also fun!

While I was punching out coloured flowers from an old magazine a lot of black/white/gray bits caught my eye so I tried some black & white cards. As much as I love rainbow I love these too!

My favourite thing about these cards? They are made from an old magazine & recycled card stock so they're green as well as rainbow.

Plaid + Pintucks = Shirt!

2011-02-24T20:48:00.000-05:00

I didn't mean to mislead you into thinking I was making a skirt when I posted that other picture. But the pintucks were the most interesting thing happening at that time. This is what the pintucking turned into:

A cozy tunic (inspired by one I saw a 2-year-old wearing). I drafted the pattern myself and am generally quite happy with how it turned out, although if I sew it again there are some changes I'll make. The worst part of sewing this was the collar. I tried many variations & techniques before finding this method of binding a neck edge which worked, if not perfectly, at least passably! When I was finally ready to cut the collar of the plaid cloth, and not the old bedsheet I'd made a test pattern with, I decided to cut it off the front of the shirt as it was hanging down 4 inches past the bottom of the back. You know that adage measure twice, cut once? Well you should also check what you're cutting from twice! Yes, I cut my collar piece off the perfectly lengthed back. So then I had to cut some off the front and attach it to the back to make the tunic the length I wanted. I figured a seam a couple inches from the back hem is less noticeable then a shirt that is clearly too short.

This was the first time I'd done pintucks, they take a while to do well but are actually pretty easy as it's all sewing in a straight line. It was also the first time I've made a garment with buttonholes! Until my first sewing lesson when we tried doing buttonholes I was a little scared of them! But now it's rather fun to see the sewing machine zipping along doing it's own thing to create a buttonhole.

With spring coming up I'm thinking of trying this pattern in a lightweight fabric, what do you think?

Kirigami Challenge - Week 3

2011-02-22T18:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's holiday (Family Day) had me a bit mixed up so I'm a day late with my week 3 post. I did a lot of star shapes this week, once one turned out well I figured why mess with a good thing!

Day 14:

Lots of angles and lines. A little discoloured from the iron when I flattened it. Oops.

Day 15:
Pretty much a variation on the first one, with less open space in the middle.

Day 16:
Tried cutting out shapes, like paper snowflakes I did as a kid.

Day 17:
Wasn't really planning on this turning out to be square! Looks nice though, see how those hearts keep appearing?

Day 18:
Busy day so I took this design from my book. I love the thick and thin lines and the two overlapping shapes!

Day 19:

Sort of a flower? I was aiming for circles!

Day 20:
Raindrops. Because we had some warm weather!

I've been having fun cutting away but I will admit I won't be sorry to see this daily challenge end!

Plaid & Pintucks

2011-02-16T16:55:00.000-05:00

What is that? you may be asking. Well, it's pintucks and plaid. Is this clearer?

Want to know what it will become? Stay tuned! (Read: I still need to finish it!)

Kirigami Challenge - Week 2

2011-02-14T17:28:00.000-05:00

Ready for week 2 of my kirigami challenge? Here we go!

Day 7:

My attempts at being abstract in roundish & angular ways.

Day 8:
A small cut out copied from the booklet (busy day!)

Day 9:
This one turned out better then I thought it would before unfolding it. I like how the symmetrical-ness is really apparent.

Day 10:
Something that was meant to be sailboats but turned out like a flower.

Day 11:
Random cut-outs. Reminds me of playing cards.

Day 12:
Something maple leaf-ish to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Olympic games opening in Vancouver.

Day 13:
Pine trees. This is my favourite one so far. Have to stash this idea away for next Christmas - cards perhaps?

Giveaway Winner!

2011-02-13T08:54:00.000-05:00

The True Random Number Generator generated number 1 for the winner.

Congratulations to Erika who said:

I just found your blog but I'm having a lot of fun reading it. These cards are really neat and I like the envelopes that go with them.

And to answer Katherine's questions (which I couldn't comment on before because then I'd be entering my own giveaway!) the envelopes are made by tracing around a store bought envelope that I've unfolded. There are envelope templates you can buy that have holes to score the fold lines as well as the envelope shape if you wanted something more sturdy. The story of how I came up with Betula`Loo was my very first post.

Thanks for all your comments and happy Sunday!

Circles & a Giveaway

2011-02-08T17:39:00.000-05:00

Maybe you had guessed already but in case you hadn't, the circles I was punching on the weekend became designs on greeting cards. It was fun playing with different colour combinations and making rainbow designs.

A little hard to see but I thought a craft paper envelope complimented the rainbow nicely. Especially with rainbow semi circles down the side.

Then I branched out a bit (pun intended!) and made some flower designs.

And since Betula`Loo turns 2 today I'm giving away this set of cards & envelopes to one reader!

The cards & envelopes are 100% recycled, from magazines and art paper made from recycled fibres.

If you'd like to enter please leave a comment on this post by Saturday February 12. I'll draw a random winner on Sunday. I'm happy to ship internationally so everyone is welcome to enter!

Kirigami Challenge - Week One

2011-02-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

I have been keeping up with my February challenge of cutting one kirigami pattern a day but had to wait for the weekend to take some decent photos (if these count as decent). So here's a round-up of week one (minus today because by the time I get something cut it will be dark).

Day 1 - flower designs inspired, but not actually copied, from a pattern in my book.

Day 2 - lots of hearts, because I love them & it's February so they're rather appropriate!

Day 3 - something that was supposed to be more snowflake like and six armed. I'm still figuring out when to cut on the fold and when to cut in the middle!

And another heart inspired design.

Day 4 - back to flowers, the one on the right is a pattern copied from the book, the one on the left is my own variation on the pattern.

Day 5 - a leafy cut, think I should try same sized leaves next time.

Day 6 - a different take on hearts with help from a hole punch. I like how the points come together like pieces of pie!

I can see by the end of the month I'm going to have a lot of designs cut out, so perhaps my March project will be to figure out something to do with them all!

On another note check back tomorrow for a giveaway!

On my Needles

2011-02-06T19:57:00.000-05:00

I like having a knitting project on the go: I rarely just sit and watch TV, usually I am also working on something and knitting fits the bill pretty well. It's easy to pick it up and knit for a few minutes, doesn't require too much thought and I can keep half an eye on any important on-screen action. Since I finished my Fiddlehead Mittens I've cast on for a scarf.

It's fun to decide the pattern as I go. I think it's going to be like a sampler, with different sizes of colour blocks and stripes in no particular pattern. And it's work towards my goal of decreasing yarn stash. This yarn has only been in the collection for 4 months so that's not too bad.

On my Desk - Circles Again

2011-02-06T08:24:00.000-05:00

Back around Christmas, or rather the long Christmas crafting window leading up to the big day, I was having fun with paper circles. Well, I'm at it again, in a non-Christmas kind of way. This time everything is sorted by colour.

It's fun to guess what the tiny pictures were once a part of.

I was looking at magazines in a whole new way, for colour, rather then content.

I'll be back soon to show you what these become!

Needle Case Tutorial

2011-02-03T06:51:00.000-05:00

A couple weekends ago the local sewing store had a 50% off sale so I ran out and bought a bunch of needles for my sewing machine. After going to sewing class and listening to the importance of using a needle meant for the type of fabric you are sewing and changing them often I knew the only way I'd do this is if I actually had these needles on hand. So I stocked up. And then realized I needed somewhere to put all these needles, enter the needle case! Just what I like in a project - all materials were on hand and it's quick enough to complete in a day/few hours. And in case you want to make one too I've put together a tutorial.

What you need:

Two pieces of fabric, 6 x 5 1/2 inches
One piece of interfacing, slightly smaller then the fabric
Thin elastic
A snap (or other closure)
Thread to match elastic and fabric
Fabric marker (I use the purple disappearing ink kind)

Step 1:
Iron your interfacing to the backside of one piece of fabric.

Step 2:
Layout your needle cases and use them as a guideline when figuring out where to sew the elastic. Mark these places with your fabric marker. Using 6 Schmetz cases I marked dots at 5/8", 2", 3 3/8", 4 7/8" across the fabric at 1.25" & 3.5" from the bottom edge. The second picture shows (with ugly blue dots) where I had marked the sewing spots.

Step 3:

Sew the elastic on the dots you've marked leaving a little ease in each section of elastic so it bubbles up.

So when you're done it should look like this.

Step 4:
Take your two pieces of fabric and sandwich them right sides together. The ends of the elastic should stick out the sides. I wanted the top of my case to have curvy corners so I drew those on with my marker before sewing.

Sew around the edges leaving space for turning at the bottom. (After taking this picture I realized I hadn't left enough room and ripped some stitches out). Trim the seam allowances, including elastic, and clip the curves & corners.

Step 5:
Turn everything right side out and edge stitch the whole way round to close up the bottom seam and make it look nice. Here I am edge stitching the newly learned cheater way with a blind hem foot to guide my fabric.

This is how it should look now.

And when you slot your needle cases in:

Step 6:
Attach your snap according to the package directions and fold up your case. I pressed mine a bit to help make the folds

Enjoy!

February Challenge

2011-02-01T06:45:00.000-05:00

I love the idea of Project 365 or some sort of one-a-day-for-a-year idea but I know myself and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last more then a couple months. But I do think I could last for one month (especially the shortest one!) so my challenge for February is to cut one kirigami design a day.

Why kirigami you might ask? In the fall I came across this tutorial on zakka life and I've been wanting to try more kirigami designs since. I bought this kit so I have paper, scissors & designs all ready to go! Hopefully I'll be able to cut some of my own designs too but for days when I don't have much time I fully anticipate copying one from the book. I'd really like to be better at this paper cutting thing and the only way I'll do that is to practice. A month's worth of cutting should at least be a good start to getting comfortable cutting paper!

Weekend Projects

2011-01-31T06:34:00.000-05:00

I needed some stationery this weekend so I got out the watercolours and did a simple line around the page. I love it! It was fun to play with different colours and combinations. I did these on art paper which was very nice to work with but makes a rather thick package to fold into an envelope! Next time I will write a shorter letter or use computer paper.

While I had the watercolours out I painted this quote, one of my favourites.

Since the Fiddlehead Mittens are finished I needed a new knitting project (great for in front of the TV). I cast on for a scarf. Four times. Yes, four. Trying to remember rib, trying out a slip stitch edge and figuring out the number of stitches I wanted. But now I think I'm set and it shouldn't require too much thought.

Happy Monday everyone! Check back later this week for a new tutorial.

Finished : England Scrapbook

2011-01-24T18:50:00.000-05:00

This weekend I got another left over project finished! Hooray! Another item off my to-craft list. This one is a scrapbook of the trip I took in 2009. My original goal was to have it done within a year of going on the trip but that date came and went last summer. When I actually settled down to working on it after Christmas I was pleasantly surprised with how much was already done - it didn't take as long to finish as I thought it would.

It's in a standard 12x12 scrapbook that I got for pretty cheap at Michael's. Here are some of the pages (click to enlarge).

Title page - I forgot to think about vertical alignment when I started putting the letters on so the L and D go off the top of the page a bit, but it actually looks quite good like that I think!

These pages are on Amy Butler paper (from Michael's).

I love the moment this picture captures so I'm showing it on it's own as well as on the 2 page layout.

I like patterned papers, stickers and trims but sometimes simple and plain seems best to show off the pictures. These are a few layouts of our hikes along the coastal path.

More walking, more beautiful scenery!

This is the cottage where we (me, my mom & sister) stayed for a week.

One of the many gorgeous beaches we visited and the only one we all swam at (it was cold!)

Cute seaside town with lots of boats in the harbour.

I love the beauty of Bath, this was my second trip there and just as gorgeous as I remembered.

These pages show Regent's Park in London and the view(s) from the London Eye.

I love including memorabilia in my scrapbooks but sometimes it's hard to include it with pictures so I made a separate page for it.

I found this vintage-y map of London paper and wanted to include it - a little tricky because I wanted the map to show. Using only a couple pictures and spreading them out seems to work.

Last page. My mom was so happy to finally (on her 3rd trip to London) ride in a black cab we had to commemorate with a picture.

As you can see I don't put a lot on my scrapbook pages. I like the pictures to be the stars and I find too much "stuff" just detracts from the memory I am trying to preserve. It also makes it a little faster (relatively) to put together. I overheard a customer in my local scrapbook store saying she spends 3-4 hours on each layout (including printing and sorting through pictures, shopping for supplies). I don't have that much time to devote to scrapbooking! I'm not sure how long I take but I'd bet it's a lot less then 3 hours a page! You may have noticed I don't include a lot of journaling either, sometimes I include more but with a thorough trip journal I can refer back to I don't feel the need to record every detail in my scrapbooks.

Finished : Fiddlehead Mittens

2011-01-23T17:00:00.001-05:00

This weekend I got one project crossed off my list - fiddlehead mittens (kit purchased in fall 2009) are now complete!

I ran out of wool in the lining colour so had to use one of the colours from the outside mitten to finish off the second lining. Since the whole thing gets shoved inside the outer mitt you won't notice the dark blue on the end. Phew!

I haven't tried the mitts outside yet but I'm sure they'll be nice and warm - two layers of wool has got to equal warmth, right? Just as well with temperatures like we've been having (-30 celcius this morning)!

The one thing I'm not completely happy with is that the lining bunches up a bit inside, like the lining is a bit too big for the outer mitt. I want to knit these again with fewer stitches in the body of the lining mitt or on smaller needles to see if that helps.

Although after taking a year (with lots of breaks) to knit these I'm not sure that I'll be in that much of a hurry to start again!

Recording my days

2011-01-17T18:16:00.000-05:00

I like the idea of having a yearly record of what has happened in my life. Sometime around New Year's I'll read my journal entries for the past year and condense them into a "what happened this year" entry to myself. Looking back and seeing what changes have happened in the last year feels like a great way to ring in the new year. I also like the idea of having a yearly scrapbook type record that's a little less personal, so it could be shown to others, and acts as a place to keep ticket stubs, pictures and so forth. In 2004 I tried doing a monthly layout after finding some paper meant for that purpose. I think I lasted till March. Last year when I ended up with a plethora of datebooks (I bought one and was given two) I decided to turn one into a mini scrapbook record of my year. It turned out pretty well.

It's nice to have somewhere to put ticket stubs, pictures and memorabilia.

Although some weeks are pretty boring as not much out of the ordinary happened. This year I'm trying a new format. I love this printable I found to record "the best of my days". Printed out, trimmed down and threaded on a binder ring the idea of recording one best thing everyday is both manageable and inspiring. I'm planning to use it as a place to keep ticket stubs too by adding them behind each month's page. It'll be ~~sad~~ interesting to see how often food features as the best thing! So far it's down three times.

From three datebooks last year I'm down to one this year. I love the cheery picture on the front and that it's recycled and made in Canada. I don't like that it doesn't have a bookmark - so I made one! Based on an idea I ripped out of an old Martha Stewart magazine, it was quick to make and so far is doing its job very well.

Basically a piece of cardboard with two elastics attached. One to mark your page.

And one to go around the whole thing to keep it closed.

Do you have any new projects on the go for this year?

Colourful Cards

2011-01-14T17:14:00.000-05:00

Remember those little paintings I did a few posts back? I'd planned to make them into cards so after looking through my scrap papers (sorted by colour, heavy on the blue & green which are my go-to colours)...

making a few cuts and sticking it all together, I came out with these:

Bright & cheery & nicely un-winter.

Card Making

2011-01-11T18:24:00.025-05:00

I saw this birch forest wall mural linked on One Pretty Thing and decided to use it as inspiration for a round of card making. I really wanted to incorporate the heart shaped leaves of a birch but it just didn't work on the plain trunks.

I wanted to make a set of four cards so I added this one to the set, but somehow it didn't fit well so it's off on it's own. I really like how delicate it looks.

And when I was running out of creative juice I got out some paper punches and did something rather simple.

Sewing Lessons

2011-01-11T18:22:00.001-05:00

On the weekend I had my first lesson on how to operate my new sewing machine. We started with some straight stitching with different stitch lengths and needle positions:

Then we tried zigzag stitches with different widths and lengths:

The really close together zigzag stitch is great for applique! Excuse the threads hanging out the edge - proper applique would have them trimmed neatly but this was just a scrap on a scrap.

Then we tried applique with blanket stitch. Plus some decorative stitches in the centre while I had a bit of time to play:

We got out our buttonhole feet and did buttonholes. At this point I realized my machine is smarter then I am. You put a button in a specific slot on the foot and it stitches the hole to the size of your button! Wow.

The last foot we tried is useful for blind hemming. It's also great for edge stitching (thanks to a little fabric guide under the foot) as apparent at the top of the applique photo (3 up):

The next class is in February - I'm excited to see what else I can do and try things out with an instructor there who can easily show me if I've done something wrong or how to make it better. Hooray for learning new things! Great start to the year.

Folding Sheets

2011-01-06T16:58:00.000-05:00

A quick break from crafting to share this video which isn't craft related but definitely useful.

I don't know about you but my fitted sheets always seem to end up in a big blob instead of anything resembling anything folded. This video really made sense to me and I can now fold fitted sheets that Martha could be proud of!

Painting

2011-01-03T16:59:00.000-05:00

Over the holidays I hauled out my paints and did a little "doodling".

The alphabet was inspirted by this post of Elise's. I liked it but found acrylics a bit finicky to work with so I tried with watercolours too.

I really love using watercolour and ink together. It seems to be a good combination of mediums for my more crafty-then-arty skills. I'm thinking of making these into greeting cards, and maybe making more for my (sadly neglected) Etsy shop.

I should really paint more often - the colours are lovely and it's such a peaceful activity.

Crafty Goals

2011-01-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

Last January I posted my crafty goals for the year, let's see how well I did.

Last year's goals:

~~Make the maple leaf scarves for which I needed the red fleece.~~ Done!
Sew a pin cushion for my fancy new pins from Lupin.
Try spinning with my drop spindle (which is carried over from the 2007 list!)
~~Knit the mitts~~ from the kit I got at the Knitter's Fair.
Knit myself a scarf with "mint-chocolate" yarn, also from the Knitter's Fair. Tried but decided this yarn is not right for the scarf I had pictured. Going to do leg warmers instead (I think).
~~Scrapbook the~~ photos from my trip to England.
~~Experiment with paper garlands.~~ Meant to do more then 1 but I'll count it as done.
Dye yarn & unspun wool (for felting/spinning.)
~~Make a brooch, something felted I think, to wear on my new sweater (because the Christmas tree one isn't going to cut it anymore!)~~ Done!
Try out LiEr's katybag pattern.

Hmmm... I completed 3 out of 10 projects and started 2 (the ones that are half crossed out).

Elise has been posting a lot about goals recently. I really liked her On Motivation post. It has a lot of good ideas, like taking things off your to do list and setting dates for your goals. I highly recommend you go read it!

With that in mind here are my crafty goals for 2011:

Finish my fiddlehead mittens (kit purchased at the Knitter's Fair in 2009. Outside of mitts done, just have the lining left).
Finish my England scrapbook.
Learn how to use my new sewing machine. I have 4 lessons lined up which should help a lot!
Work on knitting up the yarn in my stash.
Work on sewing through the (large pieces of) fabric (destined to be garments) in my stash.

And that's it for right now. I know there will be a lot more craft projects that I discover through the year but I'll stick with those five goals for now.

How about you - do you have any projects or goals in mind for 2011?

Merry Christmas to Me!

2010-12-30T10:23:00.000-05:00

Guess what I found under my Christmas tree? Yes! A sewing machine! It was a complete surprise and I'm so happy to have a sewing machine of my own. Now I can stop kidnapping my mother's! It's computerized and much fancier then what I'm used to so it will take a while to learn all of what it can do. But for now, I've figured out how to wind a bobbin, thread it and sew in a straight line. Fortunately the store it came from offers free classes to new machine owners. I'm looking forward to learning a lot.

The machine also came with a lot of accessories that will require even more learning. I mean what exactly do all these feet do?

Hopefully the classes will cover crazy feet as well.

Learn About Pockets

2010-12-29T21:38:00.000-05:00

One of my favourite bloggers, LiEr at ikatbag, recently did a series on how to sew 25 different pockets. More kinds of pockets then I knew existed! 25 pockets that were made into an amazing learning quilt which is LiEr's latest giveaway. And even if you don't win you get to learn how to make 25 pockets, so really it's a win-win situation! Go and check it out - this post lists all the pocket learning links.

Decorating for Christmas

2010-12-23T06:35:00.000-05:00

For my last post before Christmas I thought I'd show you my Christmas decorations. First up, trees!

Normally I love traditional red, green & gold for Christmas but this multicolour tree is awesome too!

Then there are a couple of little trees, the green one has working lights!

More trees march along the top of a closet. They are made from old magazines and this pattern.

My JOY embroidery and garland from IKEA add a festive touch to a picture display.

When I ran out of room to hang ornaments I stuffed them in bowls. Rather effective I think!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Embroidery

2010-12-19T09:06:00.000-05:00

I don't remember where the inspiration for this Christmas embroidery came from - maybe a card in a store - but I am so happy with how it turned out! At first I thought I would put loops of ribbon in the top to make them into ornaments but I forgot to on the first one and in the end I like them better this way. Nice to decorate something other then the tree and easier to keep the letters in order (really, how was I planning to hang letters in a row on a tree?). After I finished "JOY" I liked it so much I made "NOEL" as well!

Would you like to make a set too? Or maybe put it on your to do list for next year? Here are the patterns I used. Print on 8 1/2 x 11 it will make letters just under 4 inches tall.

I'm not an embroiderer usually so I think I went about this the wrong way by cutting the letters out of felt first and then embroidering them. I'm not going to give specific instructions, just some guidelines on what I did which you can follow or not!

I used white wool felt for the letters, cut two of each letter you are making
Embroider the leaves and berries on each letter, I just did it on one side but you could do both.
I used green thread for the lazy daisy/backstitched leaves, red thread for the french knot berries and white thread to whipstitch or blanketstitch the pieces together
Add a little stuffing to the letters as you go (much easier then trying to get in all those nooks and crannies at the end)

So you can see how I did the embroider I took a picture of the "O" up close.

Happy stitching!

Star Ornament Tutorial

2010-12-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

This is one of the projects I came up with to use all the lovely chiyogami paper I got at the Paper Place. I think it would look great with scrapbooking patterned paper, gift wrap or coloured foil so no worries if you don't have any chiyogami on hand!

What you need:

Paper (I'm using chiyogami here but use what you have)
Gold thread
Seed beads to compliment your paper (these are size 8/0 seed beads)
Star punch (or use scissors and cut your own)
Glue stick (not pictured, I use UHU)

Step 1:
Cut a piece of gold thread about 14" long. Fold in half and tie a knot around the 3 1/2" mark.

Step 2:
Thread 5 beads onto the doubled thread, slide up to the knot and tie another at the other end of the beads. A little finicky but it doesn't need to be too tight to the beads. Snip off the excess thread and set aside.

Step 3:
Punch (or cut) 5 stars from your paper and fold them all in half.

Step 4:
Glue the stars, wrong side together, to join them. Stop before you join the final halves. Hopefully the pictures makes sense.

Step 5:
Before gluing the last halves together lay the gold thread in the creases of the paper. The fold in the thread will be the top of the ornament and the beads will be the bottom. Line the knot up to be at the bottom of the star. Then glue the last bit together and you're done!

Hang and enjoy!

Christmas Garland Again

2010-12-12T21:50:00.000-05:00

I got a picture of my wish star garland in it's current home and thought I'd pop in to share it. If you'd like to make your own take a look at the tutorial over at Folding Trees.

I had a couple days off this week and got shopping, baking, wrapping and card sending checked off the list! After baking day I was definitely feeling overloaded on butter and sugar (you have to sample as you go... quality control and all that!) but now I'm good to go again. Good thing too because there are boxes and boxes of treats to eat! Wish I could share some with you all! Since I haven't figured out how to send food via the internet I thought I'd share a couple tutorials instead. Check back later this week!

Great Katazome (Paper) Giveaway!

2010-12-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

The Paper Place blog is holding a giveaway where you could win 169 pieces of gorgeous katazome paper. Wouldn't this be a great present under your tree?

To enter comment on their post before December 12. Good luck!

Paper Christmas Projects

2010-11-29T17:32:00.000-05:00

Have you seen the Make a Gift Bow from a Magazine Page tutorial over at How About Orange? I saw it last year but ran out of time to try it out. This year I started early and love how they turned out. Next I'm going to try making some smaller ones for tiny gifts. They're fun to make and you likely have all the supplies needed. I highly suggest you try it out! (They make a very good "while watching TV" craft.)

These glitter stars come from the paper I bought back in October. Dozens of wish stars later I have a garland! I'm hoping to get a picture of it hanging up for you but it's been difficult to capture the glitter at a distance. Any tips?

Christmas Cards - Quick Idea

2010-11-11T19:40:00.000-05:00

I think this qualifies as a quick idea - mainly because you get 4 cards made at once! And if I say so myself, they look pretty good!

What you need:

tissue paper in red and green
heavy white paper or cardstock
gold paint pen (this isn't the one I have but very similar)
watercolour paints and paint brush (optional)

What you do:

Cut out flower shapes from the red tissue
Cut out leaf shapes from the green tissue (make it faster by cutting 3 or 4 layers at once!)
Glue shapes to white paper
Outline all shapes and add detail (vein on leaf, dots on flowers) with gold paint pen
Fill in the background with a light watercolour wash (optional)

Then cut your work of art into smaller rectangles to glue on blank cards, outline in gold pen and you're done!

I used a light green watercolour wash on these, mainly because I felt like painting, but I think I prefer the crispness of the plain white, unpainted background.

Christmas Cards

2010-11-02T20:39:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd share a couple of my latest card designs. The one on the left was super simple to make: cut out a section of scrapbooking paper, stick it on a card and add little strips of fabric-ribbon-sticker to the top and bottom. I'd made the fabric-ribbon-sticker beforehand by sticking a length of double sided tape to the backside of fabric and cutting the width in half with my rotary cutter. The card on the right was made by cutting a tree shape out of glitter card stock (any guesses where I got my tree design from?) and adding some stick on red rhinestones. I love using the blank value pack cards from Michael's. It makes card making a lot more enjoyable (and faster) to have pre-cut cards with envelopes to match!

Design from a Doodle

2010-10-26T18:20:00.000-04:00

Remember my Christmas doodles? Here is something I made based on my doodle designs - a little felt ornament/hanger. It was pretty quick to make: a little wool felt, some embroidery thread and beads to help put it all together. I'm not sure if it'll go on a tree (it might be a bit long?), I may hang it on a doorknob or in a window somewhere.

Christmas Doodles

2010-10-24T20:16:00.000-04:00

I love having time to sit down and craft but sometimes I find myself beginning an hour or two of crafting and not knowing where to start! So one day I did some doodling while I was watching TV (and not knitting as is usual when the TV is on). It was fun to get out the coloured markers without a particular aim in mind. Some of these doodles have inspired craft projects, come by tomorrow and I'll be showing off the first one!

P.S. How do you organize your craft time?

Christmas Circles

2010-10-22T18:11:00.000-04:00

Before I get going on projects with my new paper I thought I'd show you some of the other paper things I've been working on. A few weekends ago I started work on Christmas cards. This year I wanted to get away from my standard stamped-image-on-square-on-coloured-square-on-card style so I started by punching out circles in two sizes. Most of this paper is scrapbooking paper but there is also some used gift wrap in there.

After doing all the punching I felt I had to organize things.

And then I got down to glueing. These are some of the designs I came up with.

How about you, are you a start Christmas early person or a wait a minute, Halloween isn't even over yet type? As you have probably guessed I fall in the first category!

I (heart) Paper!

2010-10-19T21:16:00.000-04:00

The second part of my Paper Place experience - the goodies I brought home! Expect to see these papers cropping up again when I blog about Christmas crafts.

This marbled paper is from Brazil - very beautiful and very expensive. I bought little 5x7 sheets because it cost less and I could take home four different designs. I love the colours on the teal one (bottom right) but the shapes in the purple one (bottom left) are great.

A lot of my purchases were heavy on the red, green and gold. Christmas crafting anyone?

This glitter paper doesn't show up very well in the photo - just imagine a sheet of glitter and that's pretty much it. It's fairly light weight so I'm hoping it folds easily (wouldn't wish stars look great in glitter?).

These textured papers are fun. The white one makes me think of snowballs. I'd love to wrap a present in it!

There were some non-Christmas purchases like this floral/paisley pattern. So detailed and ornate! I think a little will go a long way.

I picked up a few non-paper goodies too - washi tape and paper string.

I get excited just thinking about all the great paper I have to use - I plan to set aside some time in the upcoming week to play with it and see what happens. Stay tuned!

Paper Heaven

2010-10-18T21:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday and part of my day was going in to Toronto where I visited The Paper Place.

It was my first visit there and absolutely as amazing as it looks on the website! I thought I did really well to spend less then an hour in there and go through the whole store (I would have been longer but they were closing). I spent all my birthday money, and then some, but I came home with so many gorgeous papers - I can't wait to get crafting! I'll be back in the next day or two to show you what I bought but for now enjoy a few shots of the store.

Do you see those things that look like bolts of fabric on the right? On the green shelf? They are "bolts" of chiyogami paper - I'm sure there were over 100 patterns there, all arranged by colour. If you find yourself in the Toronto area I highly recommend you visit the store to see all the loveliness for yourself.

A Little Sewing

2010-10-11T18:34:00.000-04:00

My latest sewing project has been these little "taggies" blankets for some moms-to-be at work. I wanted to make them a little something and these were simple and fun. The little "tags" all came from my ribbon drawer (I did think of buying some ribbon but clearly that was unnecessary!). For the front of the blanket I made a little quilt square with cotton prints. The back is striped flannel. Next time I think I'll do flannel on both sides - it's so soft and without the quilt bit they'll be so much faster to sew, making them easier for those last minute gifts!

(On an unrelated note does anyone know why I have both "fabric" and "sew" as labels for my posts? When did I use one and not the other?)

Happiness Is...

2010-10-08T22:22:00.000-04:00

a golden autumn day
Friday afternoon of a long weekend
knitting a gift for a friend
weather warm enough for a tank top and shorts... in October
finding out my small camera fits in the gel pocket of my bike shorts
getting all of the ends sewn into my Fiddlehead Mittens
finishing a good book
browsing this year's 101 Christmas Cookies magazine
getting a birthday surprise from a local store in the mail

Beautiful Paper

2010-08-06T16:27:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to a talk about Japanese paper at the local art store. Nancy from the Japanese Paper Place shared her love of Japanese paper and wealth of knowledge with us in a most pleasant evening!

In the body of the talk Nancy showed slides of her latest trip to Japan. She visited a few different paper makers and took pictures of the many parts of the process. The paper she "followed" is made from kozo, a plant that is grown in Japan as a crop (with paper making in mind) and is completely renewable. The paper making process is quite involved: growing, harvesting, steaming, stripping (of bark!), soaking, cooking, pounding, picking (out stray bits) and finally dipping the screen into the vat of pulp to create a sheet of paper.

Some of the interesting qualities I learned about quality Japanese paper is that the thinnest paper is usually the best quality- although it has a similar weight to tissue paper this paper can stand up to quite heavy use. Also great paper is still great when wet.

Unfortunately I ~~forgot~~ didn't even think to take my camera so I wasn't able to take pictures of the many pieces of art Nancy had displayed. My favourite piece was a small drawstring bag made out of chiyogami paper. The paper had been treated with komyaku (a sealer) and sewn like fabric!

I was so excited to get a sample pack of paper to bring home to play with! Nancy gave suggestions on how each paper could be used, drawing, painting, batik, crumpling, printing, sewing, etc.

If you're interested to learn more head over to the Japanese Paper Place website, they have lots of information and inspiration there!

What I've been up to...

2010-07-21T07:06:00.000-04:00

In my blogging absence I've been keeping busy with lots of things. Most notably I've been training for triathlons (the short, try-a-tri version!) and have competed in two! I've joined a training group that meets at a local lake. The weather has been great and going swimming at the lake has just seemed more appealing then sitting inside at a sewing machine or craft desk. This is me in action, getting ready to head out on the bike during a race.

Back in June I had the opportunity to attend a celebration for Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. It was a great way to continue the Olympic high I rode in February. The highlight for me was getting to hold one of their gold medals! Tessa and Scott have been so generous in sharing them with Canada. Wherever they go the medals come along for people to touch and hold. They also signed autographs and chatted with the many fans who turned out for the event. As well as being brilliant skaters they are just awesome nice people.

Right now I'm in my last couple weeks of my ECE distance ed program. After three years of taking courses I am less then two weeks from being done!! Yipee!!! Less school work = more time for crafting. Speaking of which, I attended a talk on Japanese paper yesterday. Very interesting and inspiring, I'll be back to share.

Exciting News!

2010-07-20T07:11:00.000-04:00

This morning I read some exciting news that finally dragged me over to the "new post" button. Yes, I've been MIA for... well, much longer then I intended. And somehow once one week turned into two and then it was a month it became harder to get the motivation to blog. But anyways I'll fill you in on what I've been up to later. For now the exciting news is that LiEr over at ikatbag is co-hosting a how to draft series! If you've never been over to ikatbag you should run over now! LiEr does incredible things with fabric (without commercial patterns!), cardboard and occasionally electronics. All done with extreme modesty and a great sense of humour.

Oh, and when I say there's a how to draft series starting soon I mean how to draft patterns - clothes - starting from scratch! I can't wait to begin!